Design & Methodology:1.

Proposed Work:Design of a road embankment with or without the use of geogrid , with the use of Plaxis software.

2. Design of proposed work:CONSTRUCTION OF A ROAD EMBANKMENT

The construction of an embankment on soft soil with a high groundwater level leads to an increase in pore pressure. As a result of this 'undrained behaviour' the effective stress remains low and intermediate consolidation periods have to be adopted in order to construct the embankment safely. During consolidation the excess pore pressures dissipate so that the soil can obtain the necessary shear strength to continue the construction process. This lesson concerns the construction of a road embankment in which the mechanism described above is analysed in detail. In the analysis three new calculation options are introduced, namely a consolidation analysis, an updated mesh analysis and the calculation of a safety factor by means of phi-c-reduction.

Figure 1 Situation of a road embankment on soft soil 1. INPUT

Figure 1 shows a cross section of a road embankment. The embankment is 16.0 m wide and 4.0 m high. The slopes have a slope of 1:3. The problem is symmetric, so only one half is modelled (in this case the right half is chosen). The embankment itself is composed of loose sandy soil. The subsoil consists of 6.0 m of soft soil. The upper 3.0 m of this soft soil layer is modelled as a peat layer and the lower 3.0 m as clay. The phreatic level coincides with the original ground surface. Under the soft soil layers there is a dense sand layer, which is not included in the model.

Geometry model
The embankment shown in Figure 1 can be analysed with a plane strain model. For this example 15-node elements are utilised. The standard units for Length, Force and Time are used (m, kN and day). A total width of 40 m is considered in the geometry model, starting from the embankment centre. The full geometry can be drawn using the Geometry line option. The deformations of the deep sand layer in Figure 1 are assumed to be zero. Hence, this layer is not included in the model and a fixed base is used instead.

The Standard fixities can be used to define the boundary conditions. The geometry model is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Geometry model of road embankment project Table 7.1. Material properties of the road embankment and subsoil Parameter Material model Type of behaviour Soil unit weight above phreatic level Soil unit weight below phreatic level Horizontal permeability Vertical permeability Young's modulus Poisson's ratio Cohesion Friction angle Dilatancy angle Name Model Type unsat sat kx ky Eref cref Clay MC Undrained 15 18 110-4 110-4 1000 0.33 2.0 24 0.0 Peat MC Undrained 8 11 210-3 110-3 350 0.35 5.0 20 0.0 Sand MC Drained 16 20 1.0 1.0 3000 0.3 1.0 30 0.0 Unit kN/m3 kN/m3 m/day m/day kN/m2 kN/m2

Material sets and mesh generation

The properties of the different soil types are given in Table 7.1. Three material sets are to be created, containing the data according to the table. The clay and the peat layer are undrained. This type of behaviour leads to an increase of pore pressures during the construction of the embankment. Assign the data to the corresponding clusters in the geometry model. After the input of material parameters, a simple finite element mesh may be generated using the Medium coarseness setting. Generate the mesh by clicking on the Generate mesh button.

Initial conditions
In the Initial conditions the water weight is set to 10 kN/m 3. The water pressures are fully hydrostatic and based on a general phreatic level through the points (0.0; 6.0) and (40.0; 6.0). In addition to the phreatic level, attention must be paid to the boundary conditions for the consolidation analysis that will be performed during the calculation process. Without giving any additional input, all boundaries are draining so that water can freely flow out of all boundaries and excess pore pressures can dissipate in all directions. In the current situation, however, the left vertical boundary must be closed because this is a line of symmetry, so horizontal flow should not occur. The right vertical boundary should also be closed because there is no free outflow at that boundary. The bottom is open because below the soft soil layers the excess pore pressures can freely flow into the deep and permeable sand layer (which is not included in the model). The upper boundary is obviously open as well. In order to create the appropriate consolidation boundary conditions, follow these steps: Click on the Closed consolidation boundary button (yellow line) in the toolbar. Move to the upper point of the left boundary (0.0; 10.0) and click on this point. Move to the lower point of the left boundary (0.0; 0.0) and click again. Click the right mouse button to finish this closed boundary. Move to the upper point of the right boundary (40.0; 6.0) and click. Move to the lower point (40.0; 0.0) and click again. Finish this closed boundary. Click on the Generate water pressures button to generate the water pressures and the consolidation boundary conditions.

After the generation of the water pressures, click on the 'switch' to modify the initial geometry configuration. In the initial situation the embankment is not present. In order to generate the initial stresses therefore, the embankment must be deactivated first. Hint: Closed consolidation boundaries can only be defined by clicking on existing geometry points. The program will automatically find intermediate geometry points. > Consolidation boundary conditions must be generated in the boundary nodes of the mesh. This is done together with the generation of water pressures. Hence, after introducing or changing consolidation boundaries, always click on the Generate water pressures button. Click once in the two clusters that represent the embankment, just like in a staged construction calculation. When the embankment has been deactivated (the corresponding clusters should have the background colour), the remaining active geometry is horizontal with horizontal layers, so the K0-procedure can be used to calculate the initial stresses. The suggested K0-values of the clay and peat layer (based

on Jaky's formula: K0 = 1-sin) can be accepted. After the generation of the initial stresses the input is complete and the calculations can be defined. 2. CALCULATIONS

The embankment construction consists of two phases, each taking 5 days. After the first construction phase a consolidation period of 200 days is introduced to allow the excess pore pressures to dissipate. After the second construction phase another consolidation period is introduced from which the final settlements may be determined. Hence, a total of four calculation phases have to be defined. A consolidation analysis introduces the dimension of time in the calculations. In order to correctly perform a consolidation analysis a proper time step must be selected. The use of time steps that are smaller than a critical minimum value can result in stress oscillations. The consolidation option in P LAXIS allows for a fully automatic time stepping procedure that takes this critical time step into account. Within the automatic time stepping procedure there are three main possibilities: Either consolidate for a predefined period, including the effects of changes to the active geometry (Staged construction), consolidate until all excess pore pressures in the geometry have reduced to a predefined minimum value ( Minimum pore pressure) or consolidate for a given number of steps, using incremental multipliers to globally increase load systems in time or to apply rate loading (Incremental multiplier). The first two possibilities will be used in this exercise. To define the calculation phases, follow these steps: The first calculation stage is a Consolidation analysis, Staged construction. In the General tab sheet select Consolidation from the Calculation type combo box. In the Parameters tab sheet, enter a Time interval of 5 days. Select Staged construction for the Loading input and click on the <Define> button. Activate the first part of the embankment in the Geometry configuration window and click on the <Update> button. Back in the Calculation window, click on the <Next> button to introduce the next calculation phase. The second phase is also a Consolidation analysis, Staged construction. This time no changes to the geometry are made as only a consolidation analysis to ultimate time is required. Enter a time interval of 200 days and click on the <Next> button to introduce the next calculation phase. The third phase is once again a Consolidation analysis, Staged construction. After selecting Staged construction in the Parameters tab sheet enter a Time interval of 5 days. Click on the <Define> button and activate the second part of the embankment. Click <Update> and enter the next phase.

 The fourth phase is a consolidation analysis to a minimum pore pressure. In the Parameters tab sheet, select Minimum pore pressure from the Loading input box and accept the default value of 1 kN/m2 for the minimum pressure. Before starting the calculation, click on the Select points for curves button and select the following points: As Point A, select the toe of the embankment. The second point (Point B) will be used to plot the development (and decay) of excess pore pressures. To this end, a point somewhere in the middle of the soft soil layers is needed, close to (but not actually on) the left boundary. After selecting these points, start the calculation. During a consolidation analysis the development of time can be viewed in the upper part of the calculation info window. In addition to the multipliers, a parameter PPmax occurs, which indicates the current maximum excess pore pressure. This parameter is of interest in the case of a Minimum pore pressure consolidation analysis, where all pore pressures are specified to reduce below a predefined value. 3. OUTPUT

After the calculation has finished, select the third and the fourth phase simultaneously (hold the <Ctrl> key on the keyboard while selecting these phases) and click on the <Output> button. The Output window now shows the two deformed meshes, one after the undrained construction of the final part of the embankment and one after full consolidation.

Figure 3 Displacement increments after undrained construction of embankment

Figure 4 Excess pore pressures after undrained construction of embankment

Figure 5 Excess pore pressure contours after consolidation to Pexcess < 1.0 kN/m2 Considering the results of the third phase (undrained construction), the deformed mesh shows the uplift of the embankment toe and hinterland due to the undrained behaviour. On evaluating the total displacement increments, it can be seen that a failure mechanism is developing (see Figure 7.3). In addition, Figure 7.4 shows the excess pore pressures distribution. It is clear that the highest excess pore pressure occurs under the embankment centre. It can be seen that the settlement of the original soil surface and the embankment increases considerably during the fourth phase. This is due to the dissipation of the excess pore pressures, which causes consolidation of the soil. Figure 7.5 shows the remaining excess pore pressure distribution after consolidation. Check that the maximum value is below 1.0 kN/m2. The Curves program can be used to view the development, with time, of the excess pore pressure under the embankment. In order to create such a curve, follow these steps: Click on the Go to curves program button in the upper left corner of the Output window. Select New chart and select the current project from the file requester. In the Curve generation window, select Time for the x-axis. For the y-axis, select Pore pressure - Excess pore pressure and select the point in the middle of the soft soil layers (Point B) from the Point combo box. After clicking on the <OK> button, a curve similar to Figure 7.6 should appear. Figure 5 clearly shows the four calculation phases. During the undrained construction phases the excess pore pressure increases with a small increase in time while during the consolidation periods the excess pore pressure decreases with time. In fact, consolidation already occurs during construction of the embankment, as this involves a small time interval. From the curve it can be seen that more than 700 days are needed to reach full consolidation.

Excess PP [kN/m2] 0

-10

-20

-30

-40 0 200 400 Time [day] 600 800

Figure 6 Development of excess pore pressure under the embankment

4.

SAFETY ANALYSIS

In the design of an embankment it is important to consider not only the final stability, but also the stability during the construction. It is clear from the output results that a failure mechanism starts to develop after the second construction phase. It is interesting to evaluate a global safety factor at this stage of the problem, and also for other stages of construction. In structural engineering, the safety factor is usually defined as the ratio of the collapse load to the working load. For soil structures, however, this definition is not always useful. For embankments, for example, most of the loading is caused by soil weight and an increase in soil weight would not necessarily lead to collapse. Indeed, a slope of purely frictional soil will not fail in a test in which the self weight of the soil is increased (like in a centrifuge test). A more appropriate definition of the factor of safety is therefore: Safety factor = S maximum available S needed for equilibriu m

Where S represents the shear strength. The ratio of the true strength to the computed minimum strength required for equilibrium is the safety factor that is conventionally used in soil mechanics. By introducing the standard coulomb condition, the safety factor is obtained:

c n tan tan cr n r Where c and are the input strength parameters and n is the actual normal stress component. The parameters cr and r are reduced strength parameters that are just large enough to maintain equilibrium. The principle described above is the basis of the method of Phi-c-reduction that can be used in PLAXIS to calculate a global safety factor. In this approach the cohesion and the tangent of the friction angle are reduced in the same proportion: Safety factor = c c r = = Msf tan r tan

The reduction of strength parameters is controlled by the total multiplier Msf. This parameter is increased in a step-by-step procedure until failure occurs. The safety factor is then defined as the value of Msf at failure, provided that at failure a more or less constant value is obtained for a number of successive load steps. The Phi-c-reduction calculation option is available in PLAXIS from the Calculation type list box on the General tab sheet. If the Phi-c-reduction option is selected the Loading input on the Parameters tab sheet is automatically set to Incremental multipliers. To calculate the global safety factor for the road embankment at different stages of construction, follow these steps: Click on the Go to calculations program button to focus the Calculations window. We first want to calculate the safety factor after the first construction stage. Therefore introduce a new calculation phase and select Phase 1 in the Start from phase list box. In the General tab sheet, select a Phi-c-reduction calculation. In the Parameters tab sheet the number of Additional steps is automatically set to 100 (instead of the default value of 250). In order to exclude existing deformations from the resulting failure mechanism, select the Reset displacements to zero option. The Incremental multipliers option is already selected in the Loading input box. Click on the <Define> button to enter the Multipliers tab sheet. In the Multipliers window, check that the first increment of the multiplier that controls the strength reduction process, Msf, is set to 0.1. The first safety calculation has now been defined.

Hint:

>

The default value of Additional steps in a Phi-c-reduction calculation is 100. In contrast to an Ultimate level calculation, the number of additional steps is always fully executed. In most P hi-c-reduction calculations, 100 steps are sufficient to arrive at a state of failure. If not, the number of additional steps can be increased to a maximum of 1000. For most phi-c-reduction calculations Msf = 0.1 is an adequate first step to start up the process. During the calculation process, the development of the total multiplier for the strength reduction, Msf, is automatically controlled by the load advancement procedure. We now want to define the calculation of the safety factor after the second construction stage. Therefore introduce a new calculation phase and select Phase 3 as the phase to start from . The can be done in the General tab sheet of the Calculation program by clicking on the combo box start from phase and choosing Phase 3. In the General tab sheet, select Phi-c-reduction from the Loading type combo box. In the Parameters tab sheet, select the Reset displacements to zero option, select Incremental multipliers and click on the <Define> button. In the Multipliers window, check that Msf is set to 0.1. Finally we want to know the final safety factor of the embankment. Therefore introduce one more calculation stage and let it start from the fourth calculation phase. In the General tab sheet, select Phi-c-reduction as the loading type. In the Parameters tab sheet, select the Reset displacements to zero option. In addition, select the Ignore undrained behaviour option, because in this case the long term behaviour is considered. Select Incremental multipliers and click on the <Define> button. In the Multipliers window, check that Msf is set to 0.1.

Before starting the calculations, make sure that only the new calculation phases are selected for execution (); the others should be indicated with the -sign.

Evaluation of results
Additional displacements are generated during a phi-c-reduction calculation. The total displacements do not have a physical meaning, but the incremental displacements in the final step (at failure) give an indication of the likely failure mechanism. In order to view the mechanisms in the three different stages of the embankment construction, select the phases 5, 6 and 7 simultaneously (use the <Ctrl> key) and click on the <Output> button. Select for all windows the Total increments from the Deformations menu and change

the presentation from Arrows to Shadings. The resulting plots give a good impression of the failure mechanisms (see Figure 7). The magnitude of the displacement increments is not relevant.

Figure 7 Shadings of the total displacement increments indicating the most applicable failure mechanism of the embankment in the final stage The safety factor can be obtained from the Calculation info option of the View menu. The Multipliers tab sheet of the Calculation information window represents the actual values of the load multipliers. The value of Msf represents the safety factor, provided that this value is indeed more or less constant during the previous few steps.
Sum Msf 1.4

1.3

Safety factor (long term) 1.34

1.2

1.1

Safety factor (first construction stage) 1.11 Safety factor (second construction stage) 1.03

1.0 0 100 200 300 |U| [m] 400 500

Figure 8 Evaluation of safety factor for three stages of the construction process The best way to evaluate the safety factor, however, is to plot a curve in which the parameter Msf is plotted against the displacements of a certain node. Although the displacements are not relevant, they indicate whether or not a failure mechanism has

developed. In order to evaluate the safety factors for the three situations in this way, follow these steps: Click on the Go to curves program button to start the Curves program. Select a New chart and select the road embankment file from the file requester. In the Curve generation window, select the total displacement of the embankment toe (Point A) for the x-axis. For the y-axis, select Multipliers and select Msf from the Type combo box. As a result, the curve of Figure 7.8 appears.

The maximum displacements plotted are not relevant. It can be seen that for all curves a more or less constant value of Msf is obtained. Hovering the mouse cursor over a point on the curves, a box showing the exact value of Msf can be obtained. 5. UPDATED MESH ANALYSIS

As can be seen from the output of the Deformed mesh at the end of consolidation (stage 4), the embankment settles over half a metre within two years of the start of construction. Part of the sand fill that was originally above the phreatic level will settle below the phreatic level. As a result of buoyancy forces the effective weight of the soil that settles below the water level will change, which leads to a reduction of the effective overburden in time. This effect can be simulated in PLAXIS using the Updated mesh and Updated water pressures options. For the road embankment the effect of using these options will be investigated. Open the current project in the Input program and select Save as from the File menu. Save the project under a different name. Now click on the Go to Calculation program button and open the new project. All phases will be marked for calculation. To change the calculation to an Updated mesh analysis, do the following: Select Phase 1 and click on the Advanced button below the Calculation type list box. Check the Updated mesh and Updated water pressures options in the Advanced general settings window. Click <OK> to return to the calculation window. Repeat this step for all calculation phases 2, 3 and 4. Delete phases 5, 6 and 7. Start the calculation.

When the calculation has finished, open the Curves program to compare the settlements for the two different calculation methods. Select a New chart and select the road embankment calculation using updated mesh from the file requester.

In the Curve generation window select time for the x-axis and select the total displacement of the embankment toe (Point A) for the y-axis.

To compare those with the displacements from the calculation without the updated mesh option, add a curve from the previous calculation, without the updated mesh option. From the File menu, choose to Add curve, from another project. From the file requester, select the road embankment calculation without updated mesh. In the Curve generation window, select the same point (Point A), for which deformation versus time will be plotted. Click <OK> to add the curve.

The default graph generated also includes the displacements calculated during the Phi-creduction stages. These displacements are not of interest at the moment and can be removed from the curve. Select Curve from the Format menu and click on the Phases button. In the Select phases window, deselect the Phi-c-reduction phases, i.e. phases 5, 6 and 7. Click <OK> to return to the Curve settings window and click <OK> again to update the graph. Now only the displacements during the construction and consolidation phases are plotted. To change the vertical scale of the graph: Select Graph from the Format menu and change the Scaling of the Y-axis to Manual. Enter a maximum value of 0.5. Click on <OK> to update the graph.

In Figure 9 it can be seen that the settlements are less when the Updated mesh and Updated water pressures options are used. This is partly because the Updated mesh procedure includes second order deformation effects by which changes of the geometry are taken into account, and partly because the Updated water pressures procedure results in smaller effective weights of the embankment. This last effect is caused by the buoyancy of the soil settling below the (constant) phreatic level. The use of these procedures allows for a realistic analysis of settlements, taking into account the positive effects of large deformations.

Displacement [m]
0.5

0.4

0.3

Normal mesh

0.2

Updated mesh
0.1

0 0 200 400 600 800 1000

Time [day]

Figure 9 Settlements of the toe of the embankment using updated mesh calculation